0904: Albers is up on his team-mate on the intermediate times but has a big moment at the Variante Alta chicane, braking too late, losing the back of the car and spearing into the wall.

0900: There has been some overnight rain but the track is drying quickly as Freisacher, the slowest man on Saturday, is the first man out in the Minardi on dry tyres.

There promises to be a tight battle for pole position on Sunday morning with McLaren driver Kimi Raikkonen only 0.003 seconds ahead of world championship leader Fernando Alonso's Renault after first qualifying.